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CIRCULAR OF 
INFORMATION 



CONSOLIDATED 
RURAL 
SCHOOLS 



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Issued by the State Board of Education 

For the School District Officers of Oklahoma 



HON. E. D. CAMERON 

State Superintendent 

HON. J. W. WILKINSON 

Assistant Superintendent 






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HON. E. D. CAMERON, 

President State Board of Education, President Southwest Country Life 

Association, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



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YALE CONSOLIDATED SCnOOL, 

Payne County. 

The oldest in Oklahoma — Transportation wagons used. 



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The most important work before this department upon the advent of 
statehood was the organization of district schools in the new counties of 
the State. The rural district school is the foundation of all our work. 
Thousands of our citizens will never go to any other school, and if there 
should be no district school in reach of them they may never go tq any 
school at all. Considering the fact that only a few of our children, com- 
paratively speaking, will ever attend a higher state institution of learning, 
it becomes our plain duty to see that there is a district school in reach of 
every child of every color in the State, and that these schools be made as 
thorough a.s it is possible to make them. The free public-school system in 
Oklahoma is the glory of our State, and the rural district school is the 
foundation and hope of the entire system. The work of organizing the 
new counties into convenient districts has been carried rapidly forward 
and is now nearly completed. At the present time 2,200 school districts, 
by actual count, have been organized in the forty-one counties carved out 
of that part of the State formerly known as Indian Territory, and fully as 
many schoolhouses have been built and occupied. 

In this part of Oklahoma I urged the formation of large school dis- 
tricts by the county superintendent, so that larger buildings and better 
schools might be made possible. In this way a plan of consolidation was 
effected without holding an election in which its fate might be uncertain. 
Many of these schools began work with three or four rooms and with the 
same number of teachers. 

In these new districts we enrolled not less than 140,000 children who 
never entered a public schoolhouse before, and a vast majority of whom 
never attended a school of any kind a single day. We think this is a good 
showing, and look upon it as the best and most far-reaching result of state- 
hood for our people. It is true that our public-school system is "the spring 
from whence all our liberties flow," and these rural schools come nearer 
constituting the real source and life-giving power of the outflowing stream 
of liberty than all of the other departments of the public-school system 



4 

put together. The rural school is the foundation, and all to often it be- 
comes the finishing school, the normal school and the university. Since 
this is true, it is the duty of the State to make these schools so strong that 
they will at least give a glimpse of real education and create a thirst for 
learning that will carry the student on and up through life. 

In old Oklahoma we have thirty-four counties which have been organ- 
ized into 3,441 school districts, and all of these are supplied with good 
school buildings and are in excellent condition. 

It is the opinion of this department that experience has shown that the 
average school district in that part of the State forrherly known as Okla- 
homa Territory is too small for the best school work. In districts of the 
present size it is impossible to grade the schools, and for that reason our 
citizens who live on the farm and have to educate their children mainly in 
the common district schools are denied the privilege of educating their 
children in any kind of high school. The people of the country are enti- 
tled to high-school facilities, just as much as the people of the cities, if 
these facilities can possibly be secured. To try to meet this demand we 
have laid off much larger districts in the new counties in that portion of 
the State formerly known as the Indian Territory, and will organize 
graded schools in all of these districts where it can possibly be done. 

We sincerely hope that the next Legislature will make some provision 
for extending state aid to consolidated graded schools, so that their estab- 
lishment may be fostered and encouraged in every part of the State. 

E. D. Cameron, 
State Superintendent. 



Rights of the Country Child 

O. J. Kern, Illinois. 

The country child has rights. He is entitled to a square deal in oppor- 
tunities to enjoy the best that the civilization of the world thus far has pro- 
duced. To him should come art, music and literature. Millionaires are 
founding libraries and art galleries for city children, but who is doing a 
like service for the children living in the fields? True, a poem, a picture 
or a song, as an educational agent, is likely to be regarded as a fad by the 
man whose mind for the last thirty years has Vun chiefly to corn and hogs. 
Such a man thinks that there is no use in putting' a $5,000 education on a 
50-cent boy. As a plain business proposition, there is no use in wasting so 
much good money on such an insignificant thing. But this kind of man is 
more likely to give a r)0-ccnt education to a $5,000 boy, or a $10,000 boy, 
perhaps, in possibilities. With charity for such a father, let us do the best 
we can for his children as God gives us the ability to see the best. 



The Rural School 

L. H. Bailey, Cornell University. 

The greatest obstacle to rural socialization is the almost universally low- 
condition of rural education. The educational system ought to give rise 
to important activities and be a powerful agent in promoting communica- 
tion ; furthermore, unless the rural classes are properly educated, the 
other social agencies, however numerous and aggressive, must fail. That 
the rural school fails to perform its mission is patent to any one acquainted 
with the conditions. We have supposed that a little red schoolhouse at 
every cross roads w^as all that was necessary, but while schoolhouses have 
multiplied, school attendance has fallen off, and the development of the 
rural school has been arrested; it is safe to say that it does not meet the 
requirements of those dependent on it so well as it did half a century ago. 
Today much more training is required to enable the country boy and girl 
to meet the demands on their intelligence. 

The school year is short ; teachers are inexperienced, poorly trained 
and underpaid, and are frequently changed ; attendance is irregular, for 
the children must travel long distance-s over roads often almost impassable, 
and owing to the want of emulation and of stimulus to do good work and 
to the failure to co-ordinate the lessons with the daily life of the country 
child, his interest is not won. "The rural school is unsocial ; lack of 
enough pupils to organize a game prevents adequate exercise, and the 
deadly quiet and inactivity of the small school kills its spirit." 

In the old days during the winter term young men and women between 
the ages of 16 and 21 attended district school, which w^as taught by a 
man, and the literary society and spelling school flourished ; but today few 
attend such schools after the age of 12 and 14, and the school does little 
to quicken the life of the community. Its failure has directly contributed 
to rural stagnation, for country children must remain ignorant or seek 
the city. Many parents forsake the farm to educate their children. An 
authority on the conditions in Iowa writes : "Ten thousand children attend 
school in the cities, and there is scarcely a town in the State where a first- 
class school is maintained, but one or more families will be found who 
have moved from the country to the town for the express purpose of 
schooling their children." 

To better this condition, the rural consolidated school has come into be- 
ing. This reform was begun in Massachusetts, where the first consolidated 
school was inaugurated in 1874. The movement has attracted attention in 
other states, and twenty-six have by legal enactment made it possible to 
consolidate schools under certain limitations ; all parts of the country 
from Maine to California and from Washington to Florida are repre- 
sented. The consolidated school has attained its finest fruition in the 



older states of the Middle West, especially Indiana and Ohio; in the 
former, sixty counties out of ninety have consolidated schools. 

The principle of the consolidated school is simple : A strictly modern 
school building is erected, when possible, in the center of the township; 
and provision is made to transport all pupils who live too far away to 
walk. In some cases, the school authorities own the conveyance, and some- 
times it is owned by private individuals. 



The Country School Problem 

SuPT. Ben Blewett, St. Louis, Mo. 

The condition of the rural school is the problem that involves the wel- 
fare of more people than any other. The importance of this problem lies 
both in the number immediately affected and indirectly in the potency of 
these lives in giving character to the nation. However enticing it may be, 
the life of the great towns is artificial and misshapen by the pressure of 
the great throngs. In its atmosphere the human forces are devitalized and 
dwindle into abnormal weaknesses. This is so true that the great enter- 
prises of the city are sustained only by the infusion of men who have held 
plow handles or wielded the ax. 

The old story of the giant Antaeus, like all great myths, is but the em- 
bodiment of a natural law. To get his strength and to hold his strength, 
the child must touch his mother earth, must struggle with the cold and 
heat, must know how plants grow, must experience how the knot yields 
to the skillful wedge, must wrestle with labors that test his endurance, and 
must feel the joy of his own masterfulness. The demands of his life 
develop in the country boy a self-reliance and a faculty for adaptation, 
which, though hidden under a cloak of awkwardness, give him a power 
not possessed by the child who has not had this natural training. It is 
from such people that the leaders of the world come. 

The great centers of population act as maelstroms which gather into 
their swirling rush all that the outermost circles of their influence can 
reach. To counteract this tendency, to hold the youth on the farms, so to 
organize his life there that his natural longing for social intercourse will 
be satisfied — to accomplish these ends some of the strongest efforts of our 
schoolmasters are being made. 



Rural School of the Future 

A. C. True, Director U. S. Experiment Station. 
The little rural school, so long the most backward in catching step with 
modern progress, is beginning to take ncAV form. Education in agricul- 
ture and home economics, once it is fairly started toward all farm boys 
and girls, promises to be too strong for the conservatism of even the iso- 



7 

lated rural school, which has amply demonstrated that in its present form 
it cannot properly handle these two new lines of work. It has been shown 
that the rural school needs to be born over into a new life which will fit 
it for its part — a most important part in the evolution of modern agricul- 
ture and modern country home-making. The one-room school must be- 
come the four-room consolidated school, so that a man trained to teach 
agriculture and a woman trained to teach home economics may here find 
that fair wage and that long tenure of office which will warrant them in 
thoroughly preparing for their important tasks. The faculty of four or 
five teachers can conduct a ten-year course extending through the eight 
primary school years and two years of the high school for the 150 children 
from as many farms in an area of twenty-five square miles. The cottage 
of the principal ; the plantations of timber, fruit, vegetable and ornamental 
plants ; the plats for field crops, fertilizer demonstrations and farm-man- 
agement lessons ; the laboratory and practice room ; and the vital connec- 
tion the teachers can have by co-operating with parents in the work on the 
farms and in the homes will serve to weave into the pupils' nature the ele- 
ments of a true education in country life. With the schools thus organ- 
ized there is provided in the country a far broader child life than has yet 
been conceived for city youth. How can the nation better expend some of 
its wealth than by thus making provision for well-nigh ideal conditions of 
fatherhood and motherhood in our country homes? Two hundred of the 
needed 40,000 consolidated rural schools have been established, and practi- 
cal studies in agriculture and home economics are slowly but surely find- 
ing their place in them. 



County System of Consolidated Rnral Schools, or 

the Farm School 

W. M. Hays, U. S. Assistant Secretary of Agriculture. 

Along many lines centralization is creeping steadily upon us, best in 
the form of co-operation, too often in the form of corporation. Happily, 
our public-school system is a great co-operative organizatin in which we 
all participate. Forces have arisen compelling us to enlarge the rural 
school unit to six or eight times is former size, changing from schools to 
which pupils walked, often in discomfort, to schools to which they, for the 
most part, ride in comfortable school wagons. It is fortunate that the 
enlarged school, thus made possible, not only lends itself to co-operative 
organization, but leads our rural population into other lines of co-opera- 
tive organization. It creates a large, compact, organized country life unit, 
recentering country life in a way to effect many needed developments along 
economic, social and religious, as well as along educational lines. The con- 
solidated rural school has no more important office than leading our farm- 
ers to delegate to co-operative organization those functions which the indi- 



8 

vidual farmer cannot well perform for himself. Tliese larger school or- 
ganizations will thus in many ways aid in preserving the individualistic 
land ownership to those who till the soil, and in developing the local cream- 
ery or other co-operative establishment for preparing farm products for 
market. 

Wonderful achievements seem easily possible, and no effort, no reason- 
able expenditure, is too great to harness up available school forces so as to 
develop highly for their life's work those who are to manage our farms 
and our farm homes. To no other class of our mothers can we provide 
such wonderful facilities for the production of st-rong people as to the 
mothers who live on the family farm — the farm owned and operated by 
the family. For no other large section of its citizenship can the nation 
and the State provide a scheme of schools so well designed to give an all- 
round cultural and vocational education. The interests of country life 
are mainly wrapped up in an efficient system of rural schools. More than 
half of the vocational and most of the general educational problem for 
rural youth is to be in the coming consolidated school near the farm. 

In addition to the vocational instruction given the students in the Ninth 
and Tenth Grades, or first two high-school years, the pupils in the grades 
will receive some instruction in agriculture and home-making. From the 
years 10 to 17 such instruction can be given in manual training, in farm 
and home work, and even some in the classroom, in the practice labora- 
tory, and on the school farm. This instruction, for the most part, will not 
take force away from the general studies. On the whole, it will add to 
the sum of general schooling, in part because the interesting, realistic and 
practical studies will hold the pupils longer in the school. If the value of 
this grade-school work could be properly estimated, the part performed 
by the consolidated rural school might rise to more than three-fourths of 
the school training of rural youth. 



Consolidated Rural Schools 

Wilkinson's Practical Agriculture. 

One of our greatest needs is for better schools. In many slates the 
mistake has been made of creating too many small school districts, so that 
only a short term of school is possible. A remedy for such a condition 
lies in consolidation of two or more of such districts, and maintaining a 
graded school at some convenient central point in the consolidated dis- 
trict, and providing transportation for the pupils at the expense of the dis- 
trict. This plan relieves the children from the necessity of trudging 
through the snow and mud. Special wagons are now made for this pur- 
pose, having curtains, lap robes and everything else necessary for the pro- 
tection of the children in cold weather. In some states township graded 
schools are maintained and have been found very satisfactory. Occasion- 



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ally small primary schools are maintained in some parts of the consolidated 
district for the benefit of the very small children. 

Not only should the course of instruction given be carefully graded, 
but it should be especially arranged with reference to the needs of country 
life. According to Superintendent O. J. Kern of Winnebago County, 
Illinois, the consolidated country school offers the following advantages 
over the average country school : 

1. There will result the inspiration and interest that always come from 
numbers. 

2. Stronger classes will be thus formed, giving the teacher more time 
for the recitation and for the necessary instruction. 

3. There will be better trained teachers for the country children, and 
these teachers will command and receive better salaries. 

4. There will result greater economy in school buildings and equipment. 

5. The school year of the country child will be lengthened and high- 
school privileges may be afforded him. 

6. Such a school will afford time and opportunity for systematic in- 
struction in the elementary principles of agriculture and domestic science 
throughout the grades. 

7. Consolidation will help to bring better roads. 

The first state to take a stand in favor of consolidated school districts 
was Massachusetts, in 1869, and since then the following states have also 
made provisions for consolidation of country schools : Connecticut, Cali- 
fornia, Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Nebraska, New 
Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Penn- 
sylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wisconsin. 



Some Objections Aiis\i;^ered 

C. E. Braxton, Kings Mills, Ohio. 

"The roads are often drifted in the winter with snow and impassable 
from mud in the spring." 

This only raises the question whether it shall be the horses or the chil- 
dren that shall wade through. Centralization is helping the good roads 
movement. 

*Tt will be very much more expensive." 

The facts in a majority of cases disprove this, but what if it does, if 
we get better schools. 

"There is sentiment against removing the old schoolhouse." 

We haven't let sentiment rule us when we laid aside the grain cradle 
for the binder, the lumbering old omnibus for the lightning express and 
trolley, and the supplanting of a thousand and one other things that time 
has made out of date. Why should we let sentiment keep us so unpro- 
gressive when we come to educating the future rulers of our country? 



1 1 

"It will throw many teachers out of employment." 

It may, in some cases, but the schools do not exist simply to give em- 
ployment to teachers. 

"I want my children closer to me if they get sick at school." 

Under centralization, if a child is seriously sick, the wagon takes it 
home at once if this is best. They are also better fitted to safeguard the 
children from accident and to care for them if injured. Most centralized 
schools are connected by telephone with every locality that sends children. 

"I do not like for children to stand and wait for a wagon." 

They do not need to, the wagon as a rule runs according to a certain 
schedule. They can know about the time, and if they live off the road, 
can get out a little ahead and walk along till the wagon overtakes them. 

"It will reduce the value of farm lands near the abandoned school- 
houses." 

On the contrary, in nearly every case the value of farmlands has in- 
creased in centralized townships over that of neighboring townships uncen- 
tralized. 

"It will educate our boys and girls away from the farm more than the 
present system does." 

It does not, and, as Dr. Winship says in the quotation used by Mr. 
Irons, "only one-fourth as many boys leave the farm where they have 
centralization as where they do not have it," \ 

So we could go on threshing out the old worn-out objections that used 
to be urged in communities that consolidated their schools. If all the 
country schools would consolidate wherever possible, there would be no 
opposition worth the name in three years, and better opportunities for the 
country children would speedily come if we would take a few delegations 
of our leading country people to see the consolidated schools in operation 
and talk with the parents that once opposed this system. 



Transporation 

R. P. Clark, Ashtabula, Ohio. 
There is no phase of the question of consolidation of country schools 
that is the subject of so much controversy and criticism as transportation. 
Transportation is the rock on which the consolidation idea is most often 
wrecked. It is the one phase of the consolidation question that the average 
farmer in the country districts thinks he fully understands. Approach 
him on the subject of consolidation, and he immediately turns the conver- 
sation along the line of transportation. Show him the benefits in general 
to be derived from consolidation, and he gives evidence by his reply that 
he only considers the fact that he lives five or four or three or two miles 
from the center of the township. Paint him a picture of a township as a 
social and intellectual unit, and he will only look at it from a distance of 



12 

five or four or three or two miles. Call his attention to the broader, hu- 
manitarian side of consolidation, and his poor neighbor cannot be brought 
into nearer focus than five or four or three or two miles. 

It never occurs to the average farmer that he is very likely prejudiced 
beyond a reasonable degree. His life, perhaps, has been very circumscribed 
and his horizon narrow. He is conservative to a remarkable extent. 
When any question is brought to his attention he at once, as does any other 
man, seizes upon that phase of it that is or seems most tangible and appeals 
most strongly to his interest. Therefore the average farmer sees in the 
question of consolidation of schools only one thing worthy of considera- 
tion; namely, transportation. Meet this question, and almost invariably 
the battle is w^on. Make other considerations of greater importance, as 
indeed they are, and the heaviest gun of the opposition is effectively spiked. 

In the first place, it is necessary to say that in these discussions of con- 
solidation of schools, the townships considered are all five miles* square, 
and while they present a variety of surface and soil, they are of the same 
size and are very similar in social conditions. They are in that part of 
Ohio known as the Connecticut Western Reserve, and the people are, for 
the most part, descendents of that sturdy New England and Pennsylvania 
stock that came into Ohio in the early part of the nineteenth century. The 
roads during a portion of the year are as bad as roads can be and still be 
roads. 

Road improvement has just reached Ohio, and there is good prospect 
of better things, but in no township considered in reference to consolida- 
tion has the slightest attempt been made to improve the roads along the 
lines of modern methods. It is safe to say that the townships of north- 
eastern Ohio can, in general, duplicate all the objectionable features stand- 
ing in the way of consolidation found in this (Illinois) section of the coun- 
try. 



Ho^K^ to Establish Consolidated School Districts 

John W. Wilkinson, in Southwest School Men's Journal. 

1. Interest from two or four districts in the move by calling meetings 
at the schoolhouse in each district, and have two or three persons discuss 
the advantages of consolidated districts and graded schools. If possible, 
have the county superintendent, the state superintendent or the assistant 
superintendent present. 

2. Have the clerk or some other member of the board of district trus- 
tees in each district to post notices in five public places calling for a special 
meeting at each schoolhouse to vote on the question of consolidating. Ten 
days' notice must be given, not including the day of posting and the day 
for holding the election. 



13 

3. If a majority of those voting vote in favor of consolidation the ques- 
tion is legally carried. 

4. After the election the clerk of each district should make a written 
report to the county superintendent, who should designate a time and place 
for holding an election for district officers. When three or more districts 
consolidate not more than one member shall be chosen from any one of 
the former districts. 

5. Notices of the special election for district officers shall be posted in 
at least three public places in each of the districts disorganized, not less 
than ten days prior to the election. 

6. The district officers elected should be as follows :> A director to 
serve until the third annual meeting thereafter ; a clerk, to serve until the 
second annual meeting, and a treasurer to serve until the first annual 
meeting. 

7. In all matters relating to consolidated school districts so far as build- 
ing schoolhouses, issuing bonds and the like, the law relating to ordinary 
school districts will be in force in so far as it will apply. 

8. The transportation of pupils is only to be provided when they live 
more than a mile and a half on an air line from the building. 

9. The corporate name will be "Consolidated District No , 

County of ^. , State of Oklahoma." 



Special l^arw Authorizing Consolidated 
Schools Districts 

Session Laws of 1908. 

Section 1 (amending section 1. article 1, Chapter 33, Session Laws of 
1905). Meetings of the voters of any two or more adjacent school dis- 
tricts may be called in their respective districts for the purpose of voting 
on the proposition of uniting with the other said adjacent districts for the 
purpose of establishing a consolidated school, said call to be made in the 
same manner as provided by law for the calling of special district meetings. 
If a majority of the votes cast in each of said districts shall be in favor of 
such consolidation, then the clerk of each of said districts shall thereupon 
make a written report of such action to the county superintendent of the 
county in which said districts are located. The vote in each district shall 
be made conditional upon its carrying in all of said districts : Provided, 
That unorganized territories and legally organized school districts con- 
taining a school population of one hundred persons or more may organize 
under the provisions of this act. The number of persons entitled to vote 
in said election shall for the purpose of this act be determined by the last 
returns of the enumeration of the respective districts included in said 
school district. 



14 

Sec. 2. The county superintendent shall, upon receipt of the reports 
as provided in section 1 of this act, declare said districts disorganized and 
shall form a consolidated district composed of the several districts voting 
to unite, and he shall designate a time and place for the meeting of the 
voters of the said districts so disorganized for the purpose of electing 
officers and completing the organization of said consolidated district. He 
shall give notice of said meeting by posting written or printed notices, 
stating the time, place and purpose of said meeting in at least three public 
places in each of the disorganized districts not less than ten days prior to 
the time of meeting: Provided, That in the formation of consolidated 
districts comprising territory lying in more than one county, the county 
superintendents of said counties shall act together in the same manner as 
provided by law in the formation and control of joint districts, and at 
said meeting of the voters of the newly organized school district, shall 
select a building site as near the center of population of such consolidated 
district as practicable. 

Sec. 3. The officers of each consolidated school district shall be a di- 
rector, a clerk and a treasurer, who shall constitute a district board and 
who shall be elected, and hold their respective offices as follows : At the 
meeting provided for in section 2 of this act, there shall be elected a direc- 
tor who shall hold his office until the third annual meeting thereafter, and 
a clerk who shall hold his office until the second meeting thereafter, and a 
treasurer who shall hold his office until the first annual meeting there- 
after, and thereafter at each annual meeting there shall be elected one 
member of the board in place of the outgoing member who shall hold his 
office for three years and until his successor is elected and qualified : 
Provided, That where more than two districts unite not more than one 
member of the board shall be elected from the territory of any one of tlie 
disorganized districts. 

Sec. 4. The powers and duties of the district board herein provided 
and of its several officers shall be the same as those provided by law for 
school district boards and their several officers, and, in addition, it shall 
be the duty of said district board to provide transportation to and from 
school for all pupils living one and one-half miles or more therefrom in 
suitable vehicles of ample size, with comfortable seats arranged to con- 
form to the sizes of the pupils to be carried, with an adjustable cover for 
the comfort and protection of the pupils, drawn by stout, gentle teams 
and driven by adult persons of good moral character, who shall have con- 
trol of said pupils during their transportation. 

Sec. 5. If any school district uniting to form a consolidated district 
shall have, at the time of its disorganization, a legally bonded indebtedness, 
such indebtedness shall attach to and become a charge against the territory 
comprised in such disorganized district at the time of the disorganization, 
and it shall be the duty of the county commissioners of the county or 



15 

counties in which such territory is located to cause annually to be levied 
upon the property real and personal in such disorganized territory, a tax 
sufficient to meet the interest and provide a sinking fund for the payment 
of such indebtedness : Provided, That the assets and property of any dis- 
organized district having an indebtedness shall first be applied in payment 
of its floating indebtedness, if any, and then its bonded indebtedness, and 
the residue, if any, shall belong to the consolidated district. 

Sec. 6. The school property of the disorganized districts shall, upon 
the organization of the consolidated district, become the property of said 
district except as hereinbefore provided, and the district board of said dis- 
trict is hereby authorized to dispose of said property to the best interests 
of said district. 

Sec. 7. The annual meeting of said consolidated district shall be held 
on the same date as fixed by law for holding the annual school meetings 
of each year at the schoolhouse belonging to said district, at 2 o'clock 
p. m., and they shall have such powers and duties as are by law provided 
for annual school district meetings. 

Sec. 8. In all matters relating to consolidated school districts not pro- 
vided for in this act, the law relating to school districts shall be in force 
where said laws are applicable. 

Sec. 9. A consolidated district when formed shall be known as Consoli- 
dated School District No , County of , State 

of Oklahoma, and shall be a body corporate with power to sue and be sued. 



Consolidated Schools In Other States 

ILLINOIS. 

Fred Rankin of Urbana, Illinois, says : "There has never been a place, 
to my knowledge, that has tried centralization and decided to go back to 
the old method." 

The greatest trouble in centralizing these scattered, weakly schools is 
that it is a "new thing." We have become accustomed to a certain order 
and think we are conservative because we stand against change, when we 
are controlled by an unthinking apathy. Suppose we look through the other 
end of the telescope. Suppose that consolidation had been the plan up to 
date, and that good graded schools doing high school work were estab- 
lished in the country everywhere, to which children were transported 
regularly and landed warm and dry every day, requiring six to eight 
wagoiis for each central school. 

Suppose, then, the proposition should come up to dissolve these schools ; 
to build eight houses in the township, instead of one or two ; to hire eight 
teachers, instead of four or five ; that each teacher "try to teach every- 
thing"; that the little children should walk through mud, slush and zero 



i6 



weather, even as far as two miles, or go without education; that the high 
schools must stop and the broader work in agriculture cease. How would 
sensible people look upon such a proposition? 



INDIANA. 

The Lima Township Consolidated School. 

L. H. Bailey, Cornell Unwevsity, New York. -j 

A short account of the consolidated school in Lima township, La 
Grange County, Indiana, will show the great possibilities of the rural 



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COPAN CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL. 
Washington County, Oklahoma. 
Cost, $30.000— taxable property, $3,r)00,000 ; tax levy. .3 '/2 



mill.^ 



school. The village of Lima is situated in the center of the township, 
which has excellent roads. Seventy per cent of the pupils come from the 
surrounding country, and are transported in hacks. Of the 209 children 
of school age in the district, 160 are in the grades and 90 in the high school. 
The school year is nine months, and besides the kindergarten and the nine 
grades, a four years' commissioned high school is maintained. The four 
high-school teachers are college graduates and all the special and grade 



17 

teachers have attended special or normal schools. A good modern build- 
ing stands in the center of a five-acre playground, and there is a separate 
gymnasium. There is a school garden of 200 plots and the study of agri- 
culture is conducted in the grades and the high school. The main building 
contains a hall with raised floor and modern stage. There are a reading 
room and a well-equipped library. All the activities of a first-class city 
high school flourish — a school paper, an orchestra, a school band, boys' and 
girls' glee clubs and various athletic activities. During the past year a 
lecture course has been sustained at a cost of about $400, and the hall was 
found to be too small. The former superintendent says, "The school is the 
center of the social life of the township. Every Friday night the literary 
hall is crowded with patrons. The lecture course is liberally patronized ; 
practically every farmer and his family buy tickets, and the general educa- 
tional status of the community is clearly improved by the lecture courses." 
Forty counties in Indiana have undertaken centralization or consolida- 
tion. In writing to many patrons and teachers I find that all agree that 
the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. Over 60 per cent of the 
towns and districts report the cost as Ifess, but the results as better. About 
15 per cent report the cost the same. And 10 per cent report the cost 
higher, but schools better. Where the plan has been longest in operation, 
the opposition is least. 



OHIO. 



In the center of Gustavus township stands a centralized school building 
that cost $3,500. Nine wagons haul its 160 pupils and four teachers teach 
them. Mr. Gates, for thirty years treasurer of the township, says that 
taxation has somewhat increased, but the per capita cost has decreased. 
Mr. Webb, a leading farmer there, says he has had children attending 
school under both systems, and believes that six months under the central 
system is as good as nine months under the old district plan. One man said, 
'T was utterly opposed to the new system. I signed a petition against it 
and helped to circulate the petition, and even tried to enjoin the trus- 
tees when they began building the central building; but now I would not 
go back to the old plan for anything." Mr. Lyons said : "The poor man 
who has heretofore only been able to send his children to the district 
school, now has the pleasure of seeing them secure the best education that 
the county can provide and have them at home, too, except during school 
hours and time of transporting. 



i8 

Reports of Consolidated Schools In Oklahoma 

Alfalfa County. 

In reply to your inquiry concerning consolidated schools in this county, 
I will say we have but one. Had good prospects for five or six new ones 
this past year, but small sectional differences multiplied and asserted 
themselves so rapidly that we have almost lost hope of securing them under 
the present laws. We believe it will have to come through legislation 
that will permit us to vote in the plan by counties or possibly by the entire 
state, and leave the districting to some qualified, impartial board, that will 
give justice to all. 

In regard to the one consolidated district already established, it has a 
good four-room building heated by furnace, but thus far has run with 
three teachers. The school has been in operation two years, and has three 
graduates from Tenth Grade this year. It is a wonderful improvement 
over the one-room school, and patrons are well pleased. There are three 
wagons hauling in the children, at an average expense of $50 per month. 
The teachers cost $175 per month. The levy for 1909 was 8 mills general 
and 3-4 sinking. This district is quite successful, but would be much bet- 
ter if it were larger. It contains only 14 3-4 sections. I believe a district 
to do the best work at a reasonable cost should be 5 or 6 miles square, and 
I would like to have the public transpdVtation left optional with the voters. 

Yours truly, 
Gertrude E. Hotter, County Superintendent. 



Carter County. 

This county has six consolidated school districts ; namely, Wheeler, 
Springer, Mt. Washington, Berwyn, Mary Niblack, Woodford and Tatums. 
I'his last is a negro district. 

Springer was the first district in the county to consolidate and build 
a new district schoolhouse. The district bonded for $11,000, and erected 
and equipped a handsome two-story brick structure. It contains ample 
classrooms, cloakrooms, etc., on the first floor, and a spacious, well-seated 
auditorium on the second floor. It is situated on a slight eminence in the 
town of Springer, and can be seen for miles around, the town being located 
on our beautiful western prairies. This school was conducted last year by 
a principal (Professor Morgan), and three lady assistants. Splendid work 
was accomplished, as an examination of their pupils will show. This dis- 
trict, as it was first laid out, comprised about forty sections of land, and 
had a taxable valuation of $320,101 last year; the tax levy was 12 1-2 
mills ; the scholastic census for 1909-10 was 258 white children and 137 
colored. Three separate schools, employing three teachers, are maintained 
by the county for these colored children, in this district. 

The Wheeler district, while not so large as the Springer district, is one 



J9 



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of the richest of our school districts. Besides all of its valuable farm 
lands, it lies in the center of the greatest oil and gas district of southern 
Oklahoma, and these interests, of course, are a large source of her wealth. 
The Santa Fe Railroad owns valuable possession in this oil and gas field. 
Wheeler has one of the most up-to-date school buildings in the state, if 
she does not lead in this respect. It was built at a cost of $6,000, and is 
heated and lighted with gas from the Wheeler oil field. The present term 
of school in the town of Wheeler was conducted by Professor Langston 
and two lady assistants ; a second school, which required one teacher, was 
located in another part of the district. Besides these, the county maintains 
a separate school for negroes in this same district, making three schools 
and five teachers in all. The district contains about thirty-five sections of 
land, with a tax valuation, from last year's assessment, of $285,760 ; tax 
levy, 15 mills ; scholastic census, 170 white children, and about 40 colored. 

The Mt. Washington school district lies on the north of the city of Ard- 
more, within easy reach of the city street car lines. It contains a handsome 
frame school building, costing, with equipments and a teacher's residence, 
$8,000. This school employs two teachers. Like Springer and Wheeler, it 
is situated on the high prairies, commanding a view of miles of the sur- 
rounding country. This district comprises about twenty-five sections of 
rich farming land, with a taxable value of $309,560 ; scholastic enumera- 
tion of 102 whites; tax levy for 1909-10 was 15 mills. 

The Mary Niblack district adjoins Ardmore on the southeast, and 
comprises about twenty-three sections of land, with a tax valuation last 
year of $217,280 ; scholastic enumeration of 135 whites. This district has 
just erected a splendid frame building, reinforced with stone and brick, 
which is the pride of the surrounding country, and a joy to the people of 
the district. The school district was named in honor of Carter County's 
first school superintendent, and has the name, "Mary Niblack," carved in 
stone on the dome of the building. All these new school buildings have 
class rooms below, and an auditorium above, which can be used for church 
and Sunday-school purposes, and all public meetings. This district also 
has a new teachers residence situated near the schoolhouse. The people 
take great pride in their splendid new house, and fully enjoy the advantage 
such a building affords to the community in which it is situated. This 
school was most successfully taught this last year by two young ladies. 

Woodford and Berwyn are both fine districts, but, unlike the three first 
mentioned, they have not erected new school buildings. Woodford has 
about twenty-eight sections of land, with a tax valuation of $128,013 ; tax 
levy, 15 mills; scholastic census, ]75 white and 190 colored; five teachers. 

Berwyn has about twelve sections of land, with taxable valuation of 
$217,067 ; tax levy being 6 mills ; scholastic census, 158 ; teachers, 4. 

Both these districts have maintained splendid schools under able in- 
structors. Berwyn, Mt.AVashington and Mary Niblack have had the mate- 



21 




21 

rial assistance of railroads to aid them in the maintenance of their schools. 

Last, but not least, in its way, comes Tatums, the consolidated negro 
district. It contains twenty sections of land, with a taxable valuation of 
$42,825 ; tax levy, 12 1-2 mills ; scholastic census, 273. This district is 
bonded for $2,400 to erect a new school building which will be begun 
shortly. The people have maintained two distinct schools, one principal 
school and one primary school. Their work is excellent, both in a literary 
way and along domestic lines. Their domestic teacher exhibits work in 
both needle craft and cooking that would challenge some of our white peo- 
ple. This district employed four teachers. 

Wagons for transporting the pupils have been tried in some of the dis- 
tricts, but I find it more satisfactory, so long as our country is so unde- 
veloped, to use the money it costs to equip and run the wagons, for build- 
ing rooms in remote portions of the district, and have the central high 
school placed before these pupils as their ultimate goal. ]\Iany of our coun- 
try roads are not yet laid out and constructed, and transportation over 
ihem is often at a disadvantage. Until we can get better roads and keep 
them in good condition, I favor the primary-room plan. 

Consolidated schools solve our greatest problem in school work, to my 
mind, and I am in favor of as many as I can get in my county. The work 
done in our graded schools the past year has been excellent, and when I 
look over the examination papers of these pupils, see their standing, realize 
their needs and know, alas, the very limited opportunities of most of these 
children who are, or will be, denied the blessings and advantages of suf- 
ficient educational facilities, I say in my heart, add aloud, "Give us m.ore 
county high schools ; give the children of the country an equal chance with 

the children of the cities." 

Mrs. Mary Niblack, Superintendents 



JOHNSTON COUNTY. 

Replying to your request of recent date for the number of consolidated 
districts in this county, I will state that I have twelve such, which embrace 
an average of 20 1-6 sections. Most of these were originally organized as 
consolidated districts, in keeping with your suggestions along this line at 
our first meeting in Guthrie. 

The consolidated school is the ideal school. I have two consolidated 
districts which have built schoolhouses costing $10,000 and $13,000, re- 
spectively. One of these proposes to take the children to school in auto- 
buggies next year. Several of these districts have also built a teacher's 
^ residence on the school grounds. Consolidation is not only cheaper, but it 
gives bettef school advantages for the rural communities. 

Respectfully, 

J. Frank Lilly, 
County Superintendent Schools. 



24 

» 

KAY COUNTY. 
■ Replying to yours of recent date, will say that we have only one con- 
solidated school district in Kay County, same having been formed last 
summer of three districts — one village and two rural. This school district 
is located at Kildare on the main line of the A., T. & S. F. R. R. 

There is a movement on foot to consolidate five districts in the west- 
ern part of the county around the town of Braman. Nothing definite has 
been done yet. 

The enrollment at Kildare is far in excess of the total enrollment in all 

three of the districts last year. The average attendance is much higher. 

E. A. Duke, Superintendent. 



KIOWA COUNTY. 
We have two consolidated districts in our county — one at Snyder, the 
other at Lone Wolf. Both of these are in good condition. Both are run- 
ning transportation wagons and are giving good satisfaction. The con- 
solidated plan is being talked of in many parts of the county. 

Miss A. E. Lane, Superintendent. 



NOBLE COUNTY. 
Red Rock Township High School, 

At Red Rock in Noble County is a township high school that is worthy 
of mention. This school has a fine four-room brick building, and bonds 
have been voted to build an addition of four room.s This school was 
established under the provisions of the law for union graded schools, as 
given in Wilson's Statutes of Oklahoma, Chapter 73, article XV. 

Pupils furnish their own vehicles, so that the district is not compelled 
to meet the expense of transportation. However, the board of education 
furnishes a barn for the shelter and protection of the vehicles and animals 
used by the pupils. This school district was organized in August, 1903, 
and was formed from territory belonging to the Otoe Indians, so that 
much of the land was not taxable. District schools could not be main- 
tained, because allotments were not subject to taxation. The school opened 
with one teacher, but by the close of the first half of the year a second 
teacher was added. Two teachers were used for the remainder of the year, 
and for the school year 1904-05; three, for 1905-06 and 1906-07; four, for 
1907-08, 1908-09 and 1909-10, Six teachers will be used next year. The 
enrollment for the past year was 182. The area of our district is thirty- 
six square miles, valuation 1909, $644,807. The tax levy for the school 
year of 1909-10 was 5 mills, and the tax, $3,224.04. Expenses for the year 
were $2,380. Balance, $844.04, 

Expense includes $200 for new barn. It is necessary to have the rate 
of tax so high, since the school was run for one whole year without a tax 
levy, and the rate has been cut by the county board each time till the last 
year. 



25 



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26 

We are now doing three years of approved high-school work, and will 
put on the other year as soon as possible. The total expense for next year 
will not exceed $2,800, and the valuation will be between $750,000 and 
$800,000, which, with a 5-mill levy, will make from $3,750 to $4,000 for 
running expenses. The balance of at least $1,000 will clear all back indebt- 
edness and build another barn. We are building an addition to the present 
building, and when fmished will have a 11-room building equipped with 
steam heat, thus saving at least $200 in the year. The tax after the coming 
year of 1910-11, will not need to be more than 3 mills, and the children will 
be kept at home for their high school and business course. I do not know 
of a single person who desires the district divided. 

E. Landingham, Superintendent. 



PAWNEE COUNTY. 

Our county superitendent, W. R. Robinson, has asked me to write you 
a few lines concerning the consolidated school here. I soon will have 
closed my second term as principal, and can say that I am delighted with 
the system. I was reared in the "back woods," and have spent several 
terms "keeping school" in the district school, and of course know the de- 
fects of the rural school. I consider the consolidated school one of the 
much-needed improvements for the country child's education. I think the 
agitators of the system are making a mistake in trying to prove that it is 
the cheaper. Fanners generally measure things in dollars and cents. They 
feel the sting of extravagance when they are asked to abandon three or 
four schoolhouses and build a new one. They also know that they can 
hire a 16-year-old girl to "keep" their school as cheap as they can hire a 
wagon and team to haul them to school. I tell you, you must educate them 
to see and appreciate a better system. 

Our school is composed of three districts. It was one of the first 
schools of the State to organize under the law. It was first built with two 
rooms. Last year two more rooms were added. All except two or three 
seem to be well pleased. 

Respectfully, 

J. T. Stripling. 



PAYNE COUNTY. 

Yale Consolidated Graded Schools. 

"The Oldest in the State." 

I take pleasure in answering your questions in regard to consolidation. 

There were three districts united. The school building, as it now stands, 

cost $8,000. The wagons or vans cost $365 for three. The fixtures of the 

building cost the same as for any eight-room school. The number of 

pupils enrolled is not the same each year, as our town is growing. Since 

1908 the enrollment has almost doubled. We began that year with four 

teachers, and will begin next year with eight. The cost of transporting the 



27 

pupils last year, 1908 and 1909, was $960 for three teams for eight months. 

This year it will cost about $1,080. All pupils, both large and small, are 

brought to the central building. The districts were consolidated in 1906. 

Our monthly reports will compare favorably with most any city school. 

We have no cut of our school, but I will send you a photo. The Okla- 

homan will publish a picture of our building in their birthday edition, and 

you may be able to get their cut. Anything I can do for you at any time 

in aid of consolidation will be done cheerfully. 

Yours respectfully, 

F. P. Reed, Principal. 



ROGERS COUNTY. 

By Cecil Forsyth e. 

In Rogers County the problem of larger and better schools for the rural 
school was solved by County Superintendent B. H. Hester by following out 




COLLINSVILLE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL. 
Rogers County, Oklahoma. 

State Superintendent E. D. Cameron's suggestion to lay off and organize 
large school districts, instead of small districts. 

Having the power to regulate the size and dimensions of school dis- 
tricts, Mr. Hester divided the county into thirty-eight districts. Usually a 
county has about 135 school districts. 

Distribute Wealth. 

Some of the Rogers County school districts bear about the same rela- 
tionship in shape and size as the states of Texas and Rhode Island. In 



28 

each case the district has been laid off, with topography and wealth as the 
basis for division. One of the fundamental ideas was to distribute the cor- 
poration wealth of the county as evenly among afl districts as possible. 
About the way the plan worked out in practice was that Hester drew ati 
imaginary line around a collection of oil companies whose taxable wealth 
should flow into the coffers of the school treasury, and then extended his 
imaginary line in any direction which presented the least resistance. If he 
found the line tending to cross an unbridged stream, he drew it in and 
started downstream. That was cheaper than building a bridge, and safer 




CHELSEA CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL, 
Rogers County, Oklahoma. 

than swimming school children across swollen streams in time of high 
water. 

Having established district lines, the next step was to secure the build- 
ings. In the last two years the county has been enriched by the addition of 
about twenty-five new buildings. Of this number eighteen have high- 
school courses, and others will follow as fast as pupils have advanced far 
enough to require it. 

This system of consolidation groups itself about three separate plans: 

1. The transportation plan. 

2. The non-transportation plan. 

3. The wing plan. 

Superintendent Hester declares that many counties of the State furnish 
superior topographical facilities and could carry consolidation to even 
greater success than has Rogers, while it is not uncommon to find the 
wealth more evenly distributed. He says the east side of the State is bet- 



29 



ter off for having made the effort to consolidate and that a good nucleus 
for a future highly developed plan has been started. 

Salaries Better. 

Teachers' salaries under the consolidated system, have a tendency up- 
v^^ard. Salaries in Rogers County range from $600 to $1,500 a year for 
principals. Grade teachers are getting about $10 in advance of what they 
received two years ago. 

In several instances small towns have sprung up around the central 
schools. In every case land values increase^ 50 per cent or more, adjacent 
to the school building. 

























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FOYIL CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL. 
Rogers County, Oklahoma. 

In one rural district nine brick business buildings and thirty-six dwell- 
ing houses were built after bonds were voted to build a schoolhouse. 

In Oklahoma County, consolidation is evidenced in one building, that of 
University Heights, Located two and one-half miles north of Oklahoma 
City. By the consolidation of two rural districts here, a two and a half 
story above basement building has been erected. The building has eight 
rooms, presided over by three teachers. On hundred and thirty-five pupils 
attend. At present the school is graded from primary to eighth grades, 
and high-school grades will be added as soon as the advancement of pupils 
demands. 

All three have been carried into most successful operation, different 
communities taking readily to one or the other of the three, as best served 
the needs of the district. 



30 

As an illustration of the first-named plan, district 22 of Rogers County 
has one building which cost $8,250. The children are transported to a cen- 
tral school from all corners of the district in three school vans. These 
vans cost $250 each, and $50 a month is paid for a driver and team, all of 
which is borne by the district. The school term is eight months, and the 
superintendent is paid $100 a month. 

Rogers County has four such districts. The plan is the most expensive 
of the three plans, but its results are apparently highly satisfactory. The 
average tax levy in such districts is seven and one-half mills. 

Wing Plan. 

The wing plan differs from the transportation plan, in that the children 
are not hauled to school, and the remote districts are furnished with small 
buildings, which serve as wings to one large central building. This plan 
is most popular in districts where roads and bridges have not been con- 
structed and where the children cannot be hauled to school conveniently in 
the public vans. 

The wing schools have courses up to the Fifth Grade. The superin- 
tendent of the central school at regular intervals is supposed to visit the 
wings and to hold general supervision over them. This plan has the effect 
of giving the county superintendent several assistant superintendents as 
well qualified as he. The average tax levy for this plan is seven and a 
half mills. 

The second or non-transportation plan is the least expensive of all, re- 
quiring a levy on an average of four mills. The system enjoys neither 
public transportation nor wing schools, the school money being centered 
upon one building. The tendency is to reduce the size of the districts sur- 
rounding such buildings, so that children will not be out of walking dis- 
tance from school. The system is popular because of the low levy. 



WASHITA COUNTY. 

In reply to your letter asking information as to consolidation, I beg 
leave to state that we have only one consolidated district in Washita 
County, composed of three rural districts. It was, at first, proposed to 
unite four districts, but it failed to carry in one of the four. Afterward, 
the three districts in which it had carried voted for consolidation, and it 
was effected. The school is located in the town of Canute, has proved a 
great success, and all the people are highly pleased with the plan. 

Wherever, in this county, an attempt has been made to unite more than 
three districts, it has failed. The feature of the law which provides that 
it must carry in all the districts, proposing to consolidate, makes it difficult 
to accomplish. 

T greatly favor consolidation, and with the school at Canute as an ob- 
ject lesson, T entertain the hope that others may follow. 

Yours truly, 

T. H. Hubbard. 



31 



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32 

Consolidation and Transporation 

References. 

"Consolidation, etc., and the Conveyance of Children." Fletcher, Massa- 
chusetts Board of Education. 

"Consolidation," etc. State Superintendent Cary. See eleventh biennial 
report of the Department of Public Instruction, Wisconsin, 1902-1904. 

"Consolidation of Country Schools." University of Illinois Bulletin, 
Vol. IT, No. 3, December, 1904. 

"Report of a Visit to the Centralized Schools of Ohio." Superintendent 
O. J. Kern, Rockford, Illinois. See also his annual reports for 1901, 1902, 
1903, 1904 and 1905 (especially 1905), profusely 'illustrated. 



The Rnral School Problem 

References. 

"Rural Schools: Progress in the Past; ]\Ieans of Improvement in the 
Future." Circular of Information No. 6, Bureau of Education, 1884. 

"Some Problems of the Rural Common School." A. C. True. Reprint 
from the yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, 1901. 

"Study of the Rural Schools of Maine." Superintendent Stetson, 1895. 

"The Rural School Problem in Massachusetts." Fletcher, agent of 
Massachusetts Board of Education. 

"Evolution of the Rural School System : Present Status in Michigan." 
Burnham, in proceedings of fifty-second annual meeting Michigan State 
Teachers' Association, 1905. 

"Rural Schools and How to Improve Them," and other articles. 

Institute Bulletin No. 11, State Board of Agriculture, Michigan, 1905. 

"Conditions and Needs of Iowa Rural Schools." State Superintendent 
Riggs, Des Moines, Iowa. 



Ardmoreite Press <^^^^^^D Ardmore, Okla. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 485 026 



